What Belongs to the Sea
by fernandafb
Summary: Sally laughed, crossing her arms and looking at the boys. For a crazy second, she could imagine what would be like if Poseidon had never left them. What it would be like to have a complete family. [Sally/Poseidon, and 6 years old Percy] Cover's fanart by awesome Andiree, to whom I dedicate this shortfic.


It was a calm morning in New York. Well, at least as calm as New York could be. The sounds of cars were still loud through the kitchen window, opened to ventilate the small apartment that Sally Jackson, with so much cost, procured.

Sally stretched her arms and pulled her hair into a bun, leaning over the tons of papers lying on the table. The bills were not few, but, she hoped, they wouldn't end the month as short in money as the previous. Of course, she had bigger problems than money, problems such as her 6 years old son being chased by one-eyed monster with horns.

_Don't think about that, _she told herself. But how not to? Every year that passed, the monsters appeared more and more frequently, and Percy seemed to get into more and more trouble. Sure, there was a solution. But Sally simply acted as if it didn't exist, because it would mean Percy being kept away from her, and that she would just not be able to handle.

With a sigh, she organized the papers, tapping them twice on the table to put them together in a pile. She thought she heard Percy mumbling something in his bedroom and imagined the boy was having another nightmare. Once again, concern hit her like a wave, making her even more worried. _I'm worried about being worried_, she laughed humorlessly, fatigue weighing on her.

The ringing sound of the bell woke her up from her thoughts, making her jump in the chair. Sally lifted her eyes to the old clock above the fridge - 7:30 in the morning. Who could it possibly be? The bell rang again, this time more prolonged and demanding. The woman stood with a start, worried about it waking Percy up, and ran to peer through the peephole.

It was clearly a man, tall, with large shoulders. She couldn't see his face, once he had his back on the door, looking around as if he was trying to find a reason for the lack of response from her apartment.

"May I help you?" Sally called, refusing to open the door until she identified the stranger. She had enough experiences of "milk/newspaper/chinese food delivers" who turned out to be monsters.

Then the man turned, and Sally felt as if someone had suddenly hit her in the stomach, knocking the wind from her.

"Sally," was all Poseidon said.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, no longer looking through the peephole, though making no move to unlock the door.

"We need to talk." The sea's god's tone was serious, as if they were talking at a funeral, not through a closed door.

"Percy doesn't know!" Sally heard herself saying desperately. "He doesn't know about anything! For the God's sake, Poseidon, you can't just show up here and –"

"Percy doesn't have to see me," Poseidon interrupted her, still serious, though Sally thought she heard a note of hurt in his voice.

She hesitated, her hand on the door's key. She suddenly opened the door, surprising the man.

"Sally," he said again, this time looking into her eyes.

"Come on in and wait on the couch," she whispered, running quietly to Percy's room and looking inside.

The small kid was sleeping deeply, his dark hair completely tangled, a foot sticking outside the blanket and, of course, a small line of drool dripping from his mouth. Sally sighed, relieved he wouldn't wake up so easily. She closed the door carefully, coming back to where she left Poseidon, feeling nervous again.

He was standing in the middle of the living room. His arms held rigid a few inches from his body, his fingers dancing as if he didn't know what to do with his hands. In a different situation, Sally would probably have laughed; who would have known that a god, the master of the seas, could feel that uncomfortable?

"I told you to wait on the couch," she said, though she didn't blame him for denying the old furniture, made of hard leather and ripped in many places.

"Sally..."

"I thought you had said that you couldn't be with us!" she threw at him exasperated. "What about the law? Poseidon, if Zeus finds out..."

"If Zeus finds out, it will be my problem. I swear by the river Styx, I'll take full responsibility. Sally, it's a risk for me to be here, it's a huge risk, but... I heard about the attacks, and I couldn't simply..."

"Do you think Hades found out?" she asked, alert. "Do you think that's why so many monsters chase him now?"

"No! No, my brother doesn't know a thing, I'm sure about that!"

"Then why..."

"Sally", Poseidon stepped closer to her. "Percy is a demigod. He's growing up, and so are his half-blood powers. A normal demigod would be in enough danger already, his essence attracts lots of monsters, but a demigod son of one of the Big Three?" The sea god shook his head, laughing darkly. "He has to go to the camp."

"No!" Sally crossed her arms, defiantly. "He's my son! You can't take him away from me!"

"I'm not asking that!" This time the god moved to stand right in front of her, holding her shoulders. "I'd never ask that! I'm just saying he needs some time there, he needs to learn how to defend himself, he needs –"

He was interrupted by the ring of the phone. Poseidon opened his mouth to continue, but Sally held a finger, going to take the call.

She listened, impatiently, her boss screaming and demanding — he made it sound as if he were asking, but Sally knew dismissal would be the result if she declined — she come to work to cover someone's shift.

"This is a really, _really_ bad time!" she tried to say, then moving the phone a few inches away from her ear as the boss screamed even louder. "I have no one to watch my son! Couldn't you just –"

"Listen to me, Jackson, you come in, or you're fired!" shouted the man on the other end of the line before hanging up.

"Shit." Sally hissed, surprising even herself by her vernacular.

"I can watch the kid."

She turned, incredulous, to Poseidon. "Did you not hear me? Percy doesn't know about you! He doesn't have a clue –"

"I don't have to say anything!" Poseidon interjected. "Just that I'm a friend who came to take care of him for the day, no big deal! You need this job, Sally. I know you do."

Sally wanted to cry. Within minutes, her calm day had turned into a nightmare.

"You're not saying anything about your... _origins_, you hear me? He's still way too young; he'd be completely confused. I don't want you two leaving the apartment, even though I know you're not that stupid. One of Zeus' spies could find out and, heavens forbid, Percy would be in trouble," she listed as she wandered through the apartment, gathering her purse and shoes. "There are some containers in the fridge with leftovers from dinner, give it to him at lunch time. I'll be back in the afternoon. If you have any problem –"

"I'll send you an Iris message", Poseidon finished.

"No!" Sally stopped abruptly, horrified. "You can't send me an_ Iris message_ at _work_! Here…" She took a pen and a notepad, writing the number of the restaurant where she worked. "You just have to call me! I gotta run, but, Poseidon, please..."

"I won't tell him anything, don't worry."

Sally stared at the man with whom she had been - and probably always would be - in love with, wanting more than anything to trust him.

* * *

For two hours, Poseidon had stood in the living room, the same way that Sally had left him.

From the moment she closed the door, the god began to question the whole thing. How could he take care of a kid? _His_ kid. He shook his head. What would he say when Percy woke up? Suddenly, this all started to sound like a really, really bad idea.

There was a noise from the hallway, and a tiny voice called, "Mom?"

Poseidon panicked. For a childish moment he thought about jumping out of the window, or simply going "poof" and vanishing in the air. But then Percy called again. "Mom, why did you close the door to my room?"

Before Poseidon could regain his composure, a little boy appeared in the living room, dragging his feet on the ground, one hand holding a stuffed animal (was that a blue frog?), and the other one rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Then he put his hand down and looked at the man, freezing.

Poseidon waited for him to scream, or to at least be scared. He was a strange man in his home, after all. But Percy didn't do anything. He simply stared at Poseidon, and Poseidon stared back.

"Who are you?" the kid finally asked, narrowing his eyes.

The sea god had never felt so ridiculous, never felt so... speechless. "I'm..."

"Are you my mom's boyfriend?" Percy asked, now a little upset.

Poseidon felt his face burn. "What? No! No, I'm... I'm her friend! No, I mean, we're not friends. I'm..."

"Do you know how to make blue pancakes?"

Poseidon blinked. He had no idea how to follow Percy's rhythm of conversation. "I... I don't know how to make blue pancakes."

Percy sighed, dragging his blue frog on the floor as he walked to the kitchen. He stopped half way there to look at the man, his eyes saying _are you coming or what? _Poseidon rushed to follow him, not knowing what else to do.

"There's flour in that cupboard, milk's in the fridge, with the eggs and butter..." , the kid kept talking, pointing out the things Poseidon had to take. "And, finally, the magic potion mom uses to make the pancakes blue is right there in the cabinet under the sink."

"Magic potion...?"

Percy sighed again, impatient, and opened the cabinet, grabbing a little plastic container and handing it to Poseidon. The words "Food coloring" were written on it in big, colorful letters.

"Now you put it all together in a recipe... I don't know how much of it, but we can try a lot, because I'm very hungry."

Still feeling pretty awkward, Poseidon threw each ingredient on a bowl that was already sitting on the counter. "What's your name by the way?" the kid asked while he worked.

"Um, I'm Poseidon."

Percy frowned. "That's a weird name. Mine is Perseus, which is a weird name, too, but I don't mind."

That made the god smile a little bit. "You know, back in my days, Perseus was a pretty famous name."

"Back in your days?"

Poseidon cleared his throat, feeling that dangerous questions were coming from that kid, then decided to change the subject. "So, how old are you, Percy?"

The boy climbed to sit on kitchen counter, watching the not-so-attractive glop that the ingredients were becoming. "I'm 6. Well, 5 actually, my birthday is next month."

"Oh, that's exciting."

"Not really... Mom keeps asking me what I want for my birthday, but won't give me the one thing I really want."

"And what's that?" the man asked, a little distracted as he was working on the pancakes.

"A picture of my dad."

Poseidon almost dropped the bowl on the floor, he was so caught off guard. "How... How do you know she has a picture of... your dad?"

"I've seen it... Well, not_ it_, but I once saw her looking at an old photograph and crying. She was talking to it, saying my dad would be really proud of me. It was weird."

Memory came in a flash to Poseidon's mind. Sally pointing a camera towards them on the beach. "C'mon, is just a picture!" she laughed. "The camera's not going to bite you, Poseidon!".

He had seen the photograph afterwards, Sally was smiling, just like him. Though he was looking at her, and his smile was silly and lopsided.

He couldn't believe she had kept that picture for so many years.

"Poseidon?" Percy voice brought him back to the present.

"Yes, Percy?"

"I'm not gonna eat that. Just F.Y.I.," he said, pointing at the horrible mixture in the bowl.

Poseidon smiled. "Your mom said something about leftovers in the fridge?"

"Yay! Pizza for breakfast!" The little boy cried, jumping from the counter and running to the refrigerator.

* * *

Sally practically ran to her apartment when the shift was over. She'd been trying and trying to call home during the entire afternoon, but with no answer. So finally,_ finally_ the clock hit 5pm, and she took the apron off, grabbing her purse and leaving the restaurant as quickly as she could.

She paused before unlocking the door, trying to hear anything from inside.

Screams. Sally's heart froze. She put the key on the lock, opening the door in a rush and bursting over the threshold.

The scene she found was entirely different from what she had in mind.

Percy was jumping up and down on the couch, extremely happy. Poseidon was laying on the ground, his hands covering his face as he laughed and screamed "No!" at the same time, a board game resting in front of him.

"I beat you, I beat you!" Percy was singing. "Mom!" he shouted suddenly, seeing her, leaping off the couch and running towards her.

She lifted him in her arms as he hugged her, kissing his hair. "Me and Poseidon were playing Sorry and I won." he announced, clearly proud of himself.

"Really?" she asked, laughing in surprise. "So... did you two get along?"

"Yes! He's cool! He said he's an old friend, how come I've never met him?"

Sally lifted her eyes to Poseidon, who was giving her an apologetic smile, even though he seemed pretty happy.

"He's a very busy man," she explained, looking back at Percy and brushing her fingers through his hair. "I'm glad you guys had fun."

"Oh, we had more than just fun!" Poseidon said getting back on his feet and, taking Percy from her arms, lifted him up on his shoulders. "Did you know this boy can win every single board game? Seriously, I tried everything. Clue, Snakes and Ladders... even Battleship! He kicked my butt in everything!"

Sally laughed, crossing her arms and looking at the boys. For a crazy second, she could imagine what would be like if Poseidon had never left them. What it would be like to have a complete family.

Then the moment passed and reality hit her when she heard Percy telling Poseidon, "You have to visit us again! I got a bunch of other games we could play! Maybe you could come on my birthday! Mom makes the greatest blue cake ever!"

Poseidon would leave again. She could see the glow in Percy's eyes, and knew his heart would be broken just as hers was 6 years ago.

Breathing hard, she grabbed Poseidon's arm when he put Percy down. "We need to talk."

The god looked at her, his smile disappearing as he noticed her intense expression. "Okay. Hey, Perce, why don't you go to your room? I'll meet you there in a few minutes," he smiled.

"Okay!" Percy ran, then stopped, running back to Poseidon and hugging him by the waist. "You're so cool!"

The boy went to his room, and Sally thought she heard him muttering something like "So cool, and smells like fish!"

"You have to go," she said the second Percy closed the door of his room.

The sea god looked back at Sally, whose face was now dead serious. "What?" he asked, dumfounded.

"This was a terrible idea. You should never have come. You must go, now. But before, you're going to do something for me."

Poseidon swallowed, obviously trying to hide the pain. "Okay, anything for you. What do you need?"

"Two things, actually," she corrected. "You're a great man, the greatest. But you can't stay and I understand that. Poseidon,_ I do_," she told him, looking into his eyes. "That's why being near Percy wouldn't bring any good. And he will be so hurt. You need to erase that from his mind."

He froze. "You can't be serious."

"I am very serious. I don't want him having any memories of you. It will be for the best. Please."

Poseidon swallowed again, then agreed with a nod of his head. "And the second thing?"

Sally stood on the tiptoes and kissed him. She did because she was right, she would always be in love with that man, no matter how many years passed. Poseidon's hands were on her waist, pulling her closer.

She stopped suddenly, pulling back to look at him. "Never look for us again."

* * *

Poseidon kept his promise. In his own way.

He did what Sally asked. He erased every single piece of Percy's memories from that day. The kid would never remember of him, just the way she wanted.

But Poseidon couldn't erase his own memories. He was thinking about Percy a lot, and Sally. They hadn't left his mind for a second since that day.

Now he was watching Sally, cleaning tables at a restaurant. Poseidon crunched his teeth when a fat, repulsive man approached her. He was way too far away from them, but he was a god after all, he could hear everything they were saying.

"So, what's your name beauty?" the man asked.

Sally gave a fake smile, obviously not enjoying the man's company but not saying anything. "I'm Sally."

"Ah, Sally!" he laughed. "Nice ta meet ya, my darlin'. I'm Gabe Ugliano."

He said lots of things to her after that. And it was enough for Poseidon. Sally had said Percy would be hurt, but he wasn't the only one. The lord of the seas couldn't handle all of that, it was time to go back home.

He looked at Sally one more time, knowing in his heart that he would never be able to keep his promise for long. He would come back to her, or she would come back to him.

After all, what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.


End file.
